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March 16, 2010
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MAKING EVENTS
HIP TO GEN-Y
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| In one week: Our Association and Nonprofit Networking Breakfast, this time on "The Future of Associations." Join us at BLT Steak. Great food. Great contacts. March 23. Low price. Sign up now! |
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| Even if you don't know who Lady GaGa is or where the last season of The Real World was filmed, there's still hope for attracting young folk to your events. (First, stop calling them folk.) |
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Dallas-based event blogger and Velvet Chainsaw Consulting's Jeff Hurt (a Gen-Yer at heart) tells us one of the top, and too often neglected, must-haves is free wi-fi. How else will the Millennials upload the photos and vids that you will encourage them to take onto your Flickr and YouTube pages? Also consider e-communities before the event starts and "recharge cafés" where attendees can mix and mingle while powering up their laptops and smartphones. And speaking of cafés, research shows that Millennials are foodies. They expect to have healthy food options and prefer locations with easy access to great dining.
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Millennials don't want to be passive listeners, especially for eight hours a day, says Jeff. Instead, they prefer peer-to-peer dialogue. Yes, they want to learn from industry vets, but they'd also like the chance to pull info out of presenters. Jeff also suggests empowering young professionals to be the experts. For example, set up an "expert bar" (like Apple's Genius Bar) where they could answer other attendees questions about Twitter and other social media tools.
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| BREAK THE ICE . . . BUT DON'T FALL IN |
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Too often meeting people is left out of meetings, says leadership coach and meeting pro Marsha Egan of The Egan Group. She tells us it's a misconception that ice breakers have to take up a lot of time. Skip the full round of Truth or Dare and spend a few minutes sharing something that will get people loosened up and focused on the topic at hand. For example, at a breakout session on energizing meetings at last week's Great Ideas Conference, Marsha placed a bag of peanut M&Ms on each table and asked participants to "take as many as you think you need." For each candy, they had to write down and share something that makes meetings remarkable. We wonder how many of them wrote down M&Ms.
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Marsha says 90% of any meeting's success is in the hands of its leader. "They may not realize their role is to be the traffic cop and to make sure everything goes in the right direction," says Marsha, author of Making Good Meetings Great. She suggests sending an agenda ahead of time to keep conversation on track and let people process and contribute ideas in advance. Instead of writing minutes, Marsha advocates a task list that assigns who will do what and when. Often times, people assume that another will follow through.
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| WOMEN AND CHILDREN |
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In Chicago, we found one of the few decent things to come from the Chicago Fire of 1871: the National Roofing Contractors Association, a 4,000-member org started by gravel roofers after the blaze. President Bill Good says it's focusing more on the green and tech aspects of roofing, which he says has led to more women and young people joining the association. NRCA's foundation donates money for research and development of PV paints and shingles and trains its members on how to use new technology. The association is is also trying to get involved in climate change discussions, since so many are closely tied to roofing.
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| UPCOMING EVENTS |
| Click here to place your own listing |
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March 16 - DC Connections - Join for a night of Speed Networking and business development. A great way to swap leads, info, and rapidly grow your business. Already 350 signed up! Hyatt Regency Bethesda. 5-9pm. Info
March 23 - Bisnow Breakfast & Schmooze - The Future of Associations. BLT Steak. Networking beings 7:30am. Info
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Send story ideas to Jessica Sidman, Jessica@bisnow.com
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This newsletter is a journalistic news source which accepts no payment for featured interviews. It is supported by conventional advertisers clearly identified in the right hand column. You have been selected to receive it either through prior contact or professional association. If you have received it in error, please accept our apologies and unsubscribe at bottom of the newsletter. © 2010, Bisnow on Business, Inc., 1323 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20036. All rights reserved.
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